Bud Brewster
Galactic Fleet Admiral (site admin)
Joined: 14 Dec 2013
Posts: 17637
Location: North Carolina
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 Posted: Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:47 am Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 8-8-22 |
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Science fiction is famous for its wide range of concepts. Today's Featured Threads are good examples.
~ We start with a silly invasion yarn with big-brained Martians who battle determined teenagers.
~ Then we explore a lost world of prehistoric beast.
~ And finally we face a threat from space that can only be stopped by . . . geologists? 
Proof positive that kids should stay in school in a get an education which includes ALL the branches of science! 
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Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957)
A campy, comic version of "Invaders from Mars" (in spirit), aimed at America's teen audience. The setting is Hicksville, where a group of nasty little bug-eyed, bigheaded aliens (designed by makeup ace Paul Blaisdell) land and begin their efforts to take over Earth.
Things don't go too well; one of the aliens is gored in the face by a bull, and another one is run over by a drag-racing hot rod! The teens leave one of their cars at the scene of the accident and depart to report it to the police.
The alien's body disconnects a hand (complete with extra eyeball) and sends it crawling over to the car, where it punctures a tire with hypodermic needles that extend from the fingers. The other aliens use their needle-hands to inject the teens with alcohol. Naturally the authorities don't believe the teens when they claim they haven't been drinking.
Directed by Edward L. Cahn. The cast is as camp as the plot; Frank Gorshin (the Riddler from Batman) plays a con man who wants to keep one of the dead alien bodies in a freezer, planning to sell them. His cohort is Lyn Osborn (Cadet Happy from the TV series Space Patrol).
Also on hand are sci fi veterans Ed Nelson (star and director of The Brain Eaters) and Russ Bender (The Amazing Colossal Man, It Conquered the World). What a movie!
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The Land Unknown (1957)
| orzel-w wrote: | | Another technique commonly used in stop-motion animation that contributes to the strobing effect is double-framing. In order to save time, the animator will move the figure twice the distance and expose two frames at each position. |
Yes, I've heard about that being done — and pretty often, too. I suspect that most of the wanna-be animators who lack the genius of O'Brien, Harryhausen, Peterson, and Danforth use this method.
Even the best stop motion looks like stop motion, so using a short-cut like exposing two frames at a time produces extremely jerky motions.
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The Monolith Monsters (1957)
Famed director Jack Arnold penned the original story on which this stand-out sci fi film was based, directed with style and competence by John Sherwood from a screenplay by Norman Jolley and Robert M. Fresco.
The concept is quite original. In an isolated desert town, the fragments of a meteorite cause a series of mysterious deaths. When water comes in contact with the meteor fragments, they begin to grow like crystals.
When people touch the fragments, it converts their bodies to stone. Unaware of the meteorite's properties, hero Grant Williams ("The Incredible Shrinking Man") and his fiance Lola Albright try to discover the cause of the bizarre deaths.
A brief rain shower dramatically escalates the crisis, causing the meteorite fragments at the impact sight to grow rapidly out of the ground, forming tall black monoliths hundreds of feet high. When each monolith becomes too tall to stand, it topples over and breaks, crushing buildings and people. New crystals grow from the pieces, and the whole process repeats itself. The rapid rate of the crystals' expansion threatens to cover the surface of the Earth if their growth isn't stopped.
Fine music by Joseph Gershenson. Excellent makeup by Bud Westmore. Amazing special effects by Clifford Stine ("This Island Earth", "Tarantula", many others). The literate script uses scientific references much more accurately that most 1950s films.
Despite the film's intelligence, it doesn't make the mistake of taking itself too seriously. Watch for a funny scene with William Schallert as a meteorologist. The superb acting and the eerie atmosphere make "The Monolith Monsters" one of the true treats of the 1950s science fiction genre.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958) |
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